Category Archives: Photos

Dull. Plain.
Yep. Bor-RAINBOW.
You saw it! A rainbow cake! This feller took forever to create, but it was so much fun to play with as well.
The batter was simple and delicious, very moist. However, I don’t know if it was just me, but I followed the recipe to a “T” but despite the toothpick coming out clean, the tops of the cakes felt almost unbaked, so I baked them five minutes longer than the recipe recommended. This didn’t dry the cakes out or cause them to be darkened on the edges, but the tops remained the same. Not sticky, but they left a divot. I just leveled them off and was fine and good, I just thought it was odd. I blame the butter.

Wait, what am I saying? Don’t blame the butter! The butter did nothing wrong!
In order to maintain even layers, I took the batter and weighed it in a separate bowl. This made more dishes, so I would weigh the mixing bowl first, write that weight down, then make the batter and weigh it, then take off the weight of the bowl. The batter, for me, weighed 3 pounds 10 ounces, so when that was divided into six portions, each would be 9.6667 ounces, or 9.7 ounces.

I don’t like math, but I do it for you all. You can thank me later.

Then I have to make this

exponentially

important statement. I bolded it, but if you could do me a favor and imagine some flashing lights around it, that would be greatly appreciated.

DO NOT USE LIQUID FOOD COLORS ONLY USE GEL FOOD COLORS!

If you use liquid food colors, it would offset the delicate balance of liquid to dry ingredients in the batter, thereby messing with the baked product. In other words, it might make it too liquidy in the end with the amount of food color you might use.

Oh, gel food colors are probably about 5 or 6 times more concentrated than liquid food colors, so you will need a lot less. That’s important too. You can find them for cheap at your local craft store in the baking isle, or I get mine at a bakery supply store. You’ll find that they are super easy to use.
I’m telling ya, man, if you don’t use gel food colors, your layers will not be as blinding as these.

All in all, its a pretty normal sized cake once the layers are all stacked up, equalling to about the size of a tall double layer cake. Its not like you baked the amount of batter for three cakes, its basically the amount of a normal cake batter. Where is all this verbage and analyzing coming from? These colors are messing with my brain. Just think, if you make two of these cakes…
That would probably be my reaction too.
Even though the cake wasn’t that tall, it did require a lot of frosting, so I applied a relatively thin amount in between each layer. I do have to admit, I really don’t like massive amounts of frosting, so this amount was adequate, and I sliced really small slices. The one in the picture is an exception. Or was it? Don’t judge.
Now listen. Once your layers have been assembled, don’t dump on a massive amount of frosting and cover the cake right away. You might get crumbs to cover your cake, and we want to deceive! Any indication of color might make your cake followers curious! They may question! To prevent that, spread on a small amount of frosting all over the cake. Like in the picture, you will still see the cake layers pretty well. Now stick your cake in the freezer for about five or ten minutes.

Trust in Clara, you must.
It’s called a ‘crumb coat’, basically, the frosting will catch and hold onto the straying cake crumbs and hold them onto the cake when you frost. By sticking it in the freezer, the crumb coat becomes hard because of the butter, and so the crumbs are cemented to the thin layer of frosting, and they will not invade your lovely white buttercream which you will spread on the outside. The result? Boring, inconspicuous cake. Perfect method of deceit.
Bright and shiny. Ultra colorful. This cake is about as delicious as it is saturated in color. It will make a great birthday cake! Or if you get that sudden urge to make something wacky.

Method
Preheat the oven to 350F degrees. Oil and line how ever many 9” cake pans you have (I have three and I just reused them).

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Cream the sugar and butter, then add the egg whites (I cracked them all into one bowl) and add them a little at a time. Add the vanilla and mix until fully incorporated. Then, alternating between wet and dry, add the milk and flour mixture in two parts.

Divide the batter amongst 6 bowls (I did it by weight. Weigh your mixing bowl before you begin adding ingredients and then subtract the weight of the bowl from the final measurement after the batter is completed. Divide that number by six and add that weight of batter to each bowl), and then whisk a fair amount of the appropriate food color into each bowl. Keep in mind that the color of the unbaked batter will be the color of the baked batter. Pour into the pans and bake for 15 minutes each.

When you remove them from the oven, let them rest on the cooling rack, in the pan, for ten minutes. Then flip, cover, and stash them in the fridge to cool quickly.

Method
1. In a heavy duty mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, whip butter until fluffy, about one minute.
2. Add in powdered sugar, about 1/2 cup at a time, until thoroughly combined.
3. Add in vanilla extract and milk. If the frosting is too thick, add in more milk, one tablespoon at a time, until frosting achieves your desired consistency.
4. Frost!

Just kidding. I love nature. I spent like…6 hours outside today. Planting, running, mentoring a six year old (at a local school, they have a mentoring program, today was Super Kid’s Day! Their last day of school, YAY BOUNCY SLIDES! They really bring out the kid in me.)
Today was eventful. No, not eventful, embarrassing. I was getting ready to get her lunch (well, it was early, I was driving around, finishing errands, sending thank you notes, et cetera) and I was getting ready to head on that way to pick up the cookies I made for the entire first grade there. I’m driving along this one street, when I get a call from my buddy Bob:
“Hey, where are you?” he asked, urgently,
“Driving on (insert street name here), why?” I replied nonchalantly,
“We can’t start without you.”
“Ohhh, I might have to come over then, should I?” Please don’t ask me why I thought there was a surprise party happening, because I really did.
“What?” he rebutted,
“What are you doing?” I asked,
“Graduation rehearsal at the church at (street that is on the OTHER SIDE OF TOWN)!!”
You could say that my once-giddy demeanor changed right then and there.
Let’s just say I was bright red as I sprinted into the church 15 minutes later. The chapel is huge. Well, let’s call it a Gothic-style cathedral ATRIUM. The walk was a mile long. The world was staring. All ten billion eyes (I kid, 180+ eyes, 90+ sets of eyes, in other words). Things were happening. I was very…um…lets just say that’s the bang I didn’t want to go out on.
Anyway, moving on. I was upset because I promised my little girl to get her lunch at 11, since that was the only time I could actually do it. I FOUND that highway 10:45. Good, now to travel northbound 80 blocks, find a McDonald’s, find a Subway (for moi), then get to that cute little school and distribute the cookies to each class, all before 11:15! I FIND one next to the highway! Guess what, Subway? Right next to it. Score 1 for Clara. Its 11:00, I can MAKE IT. But HARK.
TRAIN! AHHHHH.
When your in a huge hurry, the world just has it out there for you? This train was an eternity long, eight minutes. I CAN’T MAKE IT. I book it (while not going TOO fast 🙂 good citizen here.) I MAKE IT AT 11:15. The kids are going into the lunchroom, I catch her! We have lunch! I stay for two hours! I distribute cookies to ADORABLE first graders who are so CUTELY THANKFUL.
Day-maker, right there.
So I went home and took pictures of natu-Oh! A frog!
Hey, frog! Oh, you hopped away…bummer.
Wait…what’s this..?
MR. TOAD!!!!

Happy Baking!
Clara

PS: Readers! Have you ever had an embarrassing moment? If you have oen you want to share, please comment with it! Fun!